Former Defence secretary Paul Barratt said that sailors would "hate" turning boats around. Mr Barratt told the ABC's 7.30 program last night that it was clear Mr Abbott did not want to solve the asylum seeker issue.

"There's a long tradition in Australia of national security problems being dealt with in a bipartisan way and clearly Mr Abbott has no wish to solve this problem, he wants to maintain it as a problem because he sees it as an election winner," he said.

Mr Barratt said that navy personnel would not support the Coalition's policy of turning back boats where it is "safe" to do so. "They would hate it. Ordinary sailors would say this is not what we joined the navy for," he said.

Mr Barratt's criticisms join recent comments from Howard-era Defence Force chief Chris Barrie, who has raised concerns about how difficult it is to turn boats around.

"My expectation wouldn't be very high [that] it's going to work in many cases, and I would be very conscious that our commanding officers at sea must act in accordance with international law," Admiral Barrie said last week.

Last night Admiral Barrie also told 7.30 that a "declaratory policy of turning boats back is very bad policy ... it's going to invite people smugglers to work out how to circumvent it".

But this morning, Mr Abbott told reporters at a Melbourne fish market that he was standing by his policy.

The Opposition Leader said he respected the professionalism of the navy and that they had a difficult job to do.

"The fact is, the navy has turned boats around before [and] it can do so again with the right support from government," he said.

As the asylum seeker standoff continues, yesterday another boat, carrying 81 people, issued a distress call 43 nautical miles south of Indonesia. They were transferred to an Australian ship and will be taken to Christmas Island.

Another boat carrying seven people was picked up off Christmas Island yesterday and the Sri Lankan Navy seized two fishing trawlers carrying at least 82 would-be asylum seekers heading to Australia.

Mr Abbott has said he is prepared to meet an expert panel trying to break the asylum-seeker policy deadlock but confirmed he has no intention of changing his policy to reach a compromise with the government.

As the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and ministers accused Mr Abbott yesterday of being prepared to lose the lives of navy personnel in pursuit of his policy of turning around boats, he stood fast, saying the Coalition's policies had worked once and would work again.

"I'll be listening to what the panel has to say, but I'll be pointing out that the Coalition is the only political party in the Parliament which has had a border protection policy that has been proven to work," he said.

Ms Gillard set up a panel comprising the former Defence Force chief Angus Houston, refugee advocate Paris Aristotle, and former Howard government diplomat and foreign affairs secretary Michael L'Estrange, to try to break the deadlock.

She also proposed a committee of MPs from all political parties to liaise with the panel but Mr Abbott rejected the Coalition joining that from the outset. On Monday, he wrote to Ms Gillard formally rejecting the offer.

"We [Liberals] have had consistent policies for a decade. They're policies that worked and if the government would like to take up our policies obviously we'll give them all the support and encouragement they need," he said.

The government is prepared to reopen the detention centre on Nauru if the Coalition backs Labor's Malaysia plan. But the Coalition will not support Malaysia, insisting on the "Pacific solution" of Nauru, temporary protection visas and turning back boats.

Indonesia will not accept boats being returned and Mr Abbott did not raise the issue with the President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, when they met in Darwin last week.

Ms Gillard said yesterday the opposition was prepared to risk the lives of navy personnel, as well as asylum seekers.

"I'd ask Mr Abbott, how many lives of navy officers is he prepared to risk?" she said.

"How many lives of navy officers would he be prepared to lose if he was prime minister?"

The Home Affairs Minister, Jason Clare, said Mr Abbott was "effectively playing Russian roulette with the lives of Australian sailors".

"He has admitted this is dangerous, the former chief of the defence force has said this is dangerous, the chief of the navy has said this is dangerous, and we've had members of the Australian Navy saying this is dangerous," he said.

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